How evolution works

Cathy Woodgold (woodgold at seismo.emr.ca) wrote:
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: helps a lot too.) Anyway, this is one way that bad mutations are weeded out
: in the human species; that method can't be used by an individual who is
: living thousands of years!
Correct me if I misunderstood, but what you are saying is that I should
consent to die for the betterment of human evolution? Sorry, I'm a fairly
altruistic guy, but my altruism has to be based on something a little more
substantial. I mean, I have and would risk my life for someone or something,
but I can guarantee I would not happy lie down in my grave for the sake
of something as nebulous and ill defined as "human evolution". If the
betterment of human evolution is your goal then you should have second
thoughts about most of the field of medicine, after all death from disease
and injury is "How Evolution Works" too. One last thought is that human
evolution no longer works only on the level of the organism but also on the
levels of technology and culture, so you can evolve a "better" human by
affecting the organism and/or the culture and technology.
Domenick Venezia ZymoGenetics, Seattle, WA venezia at zgi.com